Hunting lesson's
by idiosyncraticrose
Summary: A lazy nap turn's into the demolishing of fauna and a very over excited toddler. Cute little uncle/niece thing


**Just a cute little thing that popped into my head. It's a little hastily thrown together toward's the end so I dono if I'm 100% happy with it - but it looked cute the way I pictured it, anyway! I love Diego and just think that Peaches is the embodiment of cute fuzziness.**

**Hope it's an okay read!**

**BTW I might as well mention that I'm well aware I dont own these character's so no need to rub it in.**

In trees, bird's gathered in the trees and squabbled, dropping leaves and various twig's to the ground. Their voices were shrill, bright and optimistic... too much this early in the morning one might say.

A Spring breeze blew through a lazy tiger's tawny fur, ruffling the long feral stripe which ran from his neck and down his spine. Cloud's drifted slowly through the blue canvas in the sky, casting their shadow's upon the green grass below. He had never been very sure of what to make out of them; shape's that was. When he'd sit and stare into the sky, trying to discern the patterns, he'd think to himself that a few of them looked a little like puffs of snow, kicked up off of the ground when you'd chase fresh prey in Winter, or Sid for example.

"Rrrrrawr!" A small, high-pitched voice rang, causing Diego's ear's to twitch as they passed through his eardrums. He barely stirred, nuzzling his nose deeper into his front paw's as a soft moan vibrated against his lips. "Rrawwwwr!" The small voice repeated, closer this time. Diego allowed one eyelid to slide open, squinting his large emerald orb with indignation up at the bright sunlight as it streamed through a sheaf of leaves atop the offshoot of branches, framing a fuzzy figure above his head. He was silently beginning to curse himself for deciding to take a nap so close to camp, but while on the way back from a morning patrol, Diego had found a fairly peaceful looking spot with a large flat space he could warm himself, hidden by a lining of trees. Who knew he would be saught-after so soon, and so easily.

"Raaaaawr!" Little Peaches knelt, head to the ground and rear in the air as she giggled with childish delight, waving her little tail in the air. The corner's of Diego's lip's upturned into a sort of amused smile as he closed his eyes, pretending to ignore the little mammoth. A dissapointed huff was heard, before the shape of Peaches growing form moved behind Diego's closed eyelids. Diego continued to listen as she tiptoed (if you could call it tiptoeing) as quietly as she could around the tiger and not a moment later, Diego heard another loud "RRRAWR!" and felt the air exploding from his lung's as a heavy bulk landed on top of him.

_Shouldn't have ignored her_, he berated himself as sunlight exploded in his eye's and small light's began to sparkle and dance in front of his vision. On top of him, lay a giggling little mammoth. "Peaces," Diego gasped, trying to force greedy gulp's of air back into his deflated lungs. "Uncle Diego can't breathe."

"Ooo sowwy Uncle Diego!" At two year's old, Peaces was still learining to recognise her own strength. Even a small mammoth posed a formidable sparring partner against a single sabre, Diego had realised a short while ago. Peace's quickly slid off of her non-biological uncle, smiling apologetically as Diego rose to sit on his haunches, trying not to look too annoyed at the toddler. "What were you doing?"

"I was pwetending to be a tiger, just like you!" She smiled, fidgeting with unused energy on the spot in front of him. "Uncle Sid was telling me about how you used to be so bwave!"

"Did he now?" Diego felt a twinge of annoyance at the thought of Sid saying that he _used to be _so brave. He was still brave! Just a little out of practice in the whole rescue and protect thing, that's it. None the less, he felt touched that the little mammoth would think to pretend she was a tiger like him in the first place.

"So, you think your good tiger material Peaches?" He asked, earning several enthusiastic nod's from his little niece. "Hm," he hummed thoughtfully, and then with a languid stretch he stood, yawning loudly and repressing a secret smile as he heard a soft gasp and "ooooh!" from the toddler as he curled his tongue and exposed two row's of razer-shape teeth and two large saber's.

"I can do that too! Watch!" Peaches opened her mouth as wide as she could, raising her trunk to the sky as she curled her own small tongue, cracking open one eye to make sure that Diego was definately watching before she let out an exadurated yawn.

Diego had become increasingly fond of the small mammoth which he had grown to love as if she were of the same blood as him. Despite the fact that she had woken him up rather rudely, it never happened very often. Crash, Eddie, and even Sid despite how lazy he usually was, were often more than happy to cater to the toddler's every whim, especially in the morning when her mommy and daddy were too tired so play. It wasn't that Diego was a last resort when it came to a play mate, it was just more that he had never really been a playing type. He was learning though, and enjoying it as well. Diego hadn't lied when he'd said that he never got tired of peek-a-boo. He did play peek-a-boo with her fairly often, especially when she was pouty, or fussy, or overtired it seemed to help settle her. It kind of reminded him of when they had played peek-a-boo with Pinky, before Manny and Sid returned him to his herd. He rather missed it, albeit secretly, and Peaches certainly helped to fill that little gap.

"Good," Diego nodded, repressing a laugh as he moved so that he was beside the small mammoth, and lowered himself so that his belly barely scraped the ground. Peaches, watching him intently, mimicked his action's, wrapping her trunk so that it did not stray into vision. "See those flower's over there? The small yellow ones with a hundred petals?" Peaches' eyes followed Diego's to spot a small cluster of dandelion's, swaying delicately in the soft breeze. She nodded, her eyes alternatively flicking from Diego to the flower's as he continued to speak. "Watch very carefully to what I do, then when I say go, I want you to do the same, okay?" This earned yet another frantic nod from the little toddler.

Diego focused all his attention on the small patch of flower's while began to scoot forward's on his belly, baring his teeth and letting out a low snarl before he pounced, and landed right in the middle of the patch. "Now you tr-" POUNCE! As he turned to look back at Peaches, Diego felt the bulky toddler's weight knock against him as she leapt forwards trunk extended as she grabbed for dandelion stem's, tearing them from the ground and stuffing them into her mouth.

A little dazed from the sudden knock, Diego blinked several times while Peaches smiled a large apple-cheeked smile toward's him, her mouth stuffed with the flower's. "Well you definately have the pouncing down-pat. Ohh." He raised a paw to his head, massaging the start of what he was sure would be a decent sized lump within the hour. "Peaches?" A deep nasally voice called through the trees, earning an excited squeak from Peaches as she ran as quickly as she could to the approaching form of Manny. "Daddy! Daddy, look! I hunted fwower's with Uncle Diego!" She extended her little trunk to grasp at his larger one, pulling him back toward's the patch of flower's where Diego currently sat, nursing his head.

"Did you now?" Manny's eye's filled with laughter as he looked from the demolished patch of dandelion's, to Diego, and then back to his daughter's gleaming face full of self-pride.

Diego began to stammer, "Yeah, well I was... she wanted to... cause she woke me up and..." before Manny interupted. "Very cute, tigey wigey." then reaching out with his trunk, he pet Diego on the head, mindful of the sore spot. Peaches giggled, and extended her own, petting Diego's nose and squealing happily as the tiger made a gentle nip at her trunk with his teeth, chuckling and shaking his head as she scampered to hide behind Manny's trunk and scrunched up her face at him.

"For the record though, she's a fast learner, and very clever." Diego resigned himself to knowing that there was no use trying to explain what Manny's walked in on.

"Of course she does, she takes after her dad." Manny rubbed his trunk over Peaches' head affectionately as she caught Diego's gaze while he shook his head as if to say 'no way'. "What?" Manny's puzzled gase switched from Diego's to Peaches as Diego pulled his own face and shook his head, obviously knowing that the reliability of the statement had been questionablel Peaches began to giggle as Diego "shh'ed", and alongside a now-confused Manny, and a well entertained Peaches, Diego began the short walk back toward's the camp.


End file.
